Abstract: Highway Urban Areas, as defined by the Federal Highway Administration, are depicted as polygons.Purpose:

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires a review of highway urban and urbanized areas after each decennial US Census. The Census Bureau determines boundaries for urbanized areas with 50,000 or more people and urban clusters of 2,500 through 49,999 people. Highway urban areas only include those clusters with 5,000 or more people. Highway urbanized and urban areas must include all areas defined as urbanized or urban by the Census bureau with a population over 5,000 but can and usually do include area beyond the Census Bureau defined boundaries. This data set is used for identification of Urban Areas and as a reference layer for geographic information systems at WSDOT.

Source Scale Denominator: 24000Type of Source Media: onlineSource Time Period of Content:

Time Period Information:

Single Date/Time:

Calendar Date: UnknownTime of Day: Unknown

Source Currentness Reference: ground condition

Source Citation Abbreviation: City Limits

Process Step:

Process Description:

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires a review of highway urban and urbanized areas after each decennial US Census. A team was assembled to review the highway urban and urbanized boundaries based on the results of Census 2010. This team included members from WSDOT, the County Road Administration Board (CRAB), the Transportation Improvement Board (TIB), and FHWA. The team held workshops around the state in Spring 2013. County, city, metropolitan planning organization (MPO), and WSDOT region staff were invited to these meetings. Reference maps and guidelines were distributed to the appropriate local governments via a website hosted by the WSDOT Transportation Planning Office.
During the second quarter of 2013, local agencies submitted maps and other documents to the boundary review team showing how the local agencies wanted the urban and urbanized area boundaries to be adjusted. The MPOs were involved in the review process in urbanized areas. The review team met to review the maps. Those that met the guidelines were approved. Those that did not were sent back to the local agencies with suggested changes. In some cases, the review team met with local agencies to come up with boundaries acceptable to the local agencies and the review team.

Starting in July 2013, FHWA gave final approval to the urban and urbanized area boundaries that it found acceptable. Boundaries for the remaining urban and urbanized areas were approved on September 8, 2013. One set of signed maps are on file at the WSDOT GIS Branch in Tumwater. PDF copies of these maps are also available.

The Washington State Department of Transportation shall not be liable for any activity involving this data with regard to lost profits or savings or any other consequential damages; or the fitness for use of the data for a particular purpose; or the installation of the data, its use, or the results obtained.